Ah, yep, you are correct! Looks like the FAQ needs to be changed (at least for English FAQ). :D

I'm guessing the English faqs aren't as regularly updated as the Korean one would be for obvious reasons, since this is a Korean Majority Forum ^^", actually a quick Google search and it looks like its just the general notice that is included with the Reputation Plugin for VB boards, and then it hasn't been changed to reflect the actual rules =)

Anyway i seem to remember that a whole bunch of countries seem to have this "its not crime with minor consent" law as well? i would think in this day and age that most of these laws would have changed by now.

Anyway it looks a Korean Company has made a "similar" game to Team Fortress 2
http://kotaku.com/5306691/korean-pc-...eam-fortress-2
Nothing much to say about the game per say, it is "quite" familiar to TF2.

What i'm more concerned about is some of the comments left behind by some of the users.

I know in Australia at least that Korea doesn't have that much of a reputation or awareness, but i never knew that an American Site has soo many Anti-Korean opinions around. Obviously it is an internet site, but their car site (Jalopnik) also seems to have similar comments whenever a Korean car company news appears.
I can understand that a large amount of minor Korean Game Companies haven't really produced a whole bunch of quality titles consistently, but most of the comments seem to be a hate of Korea in general?
Maybe i'm over-reacting but it is concerning....
Strangely Gizmodo doesn't have the same comments, most people overseas would die to have some of the gadgets in Korea ^^

Yeah, I don't know what those comment makers are on about. Ignorance. It pisses me off.

It might be because that site seems to have a large Japanese following, There was a quote from a game before where they said "Ignorance is the greatest weapon of tyranny and old wounds open all too easily"
I think thats valid for nearly anything, especially on the internet. Still i would understand if it was Korean saying stuff about the Japanese, but i don't get what they have against us, its not like we bombed them or anything.

With North Korea being on the news so often, i think some of the American Posters are just assuming that North and South are the same, Unbelievable but you will be amazed how many people ask if im from the South or North in Sydney, and if i say i'm from the South, they keep asking if the Country is really that poor -.-'"

well it is a bit surprising...to me at least...maybe because i like to know a bit about different cultures so it is strange to me when ppl make assumptions like that....but i have faced similar comments online...i guess some ppl are not really interested in knowing more about other countries and that is ok...well until some1 asks me if i ride a camel to school...heh

I lol'd.

As far as people not knowing which Korea is the 'good' one, I've been with my girlfriend when tells people she is from South Korea, and often she is then asked "Is that the good one or the bad one?" or something along those lines. It's not common, but every once in a while, it happens.

Ever think about how things would be if Korea was never split into North and South?

i lol'd as well, then i remembered someone asked me if everyone rides cows everywhere in Korea -.-"

Anyway i think if the Two Koreas has never split, we would currently be around the socioeconomic level of some of the South Asian Countries (Vietnam etc). Sounds harsh but let me explain.

We all know that the Korean Peninsula was split during the Korean War, But what happened afterward in the first few decades is worth noting.

You had North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, and South Korea supported by the Allied Countries, Primarily the USA.

For the first couple years, we also know that North Korea also had a bigger and faster growing economy than South Korea, because of the large amount of funds the Soviets poured into the North as part of a large propaganda scheme to show the World that Communism can work.

South Korea's economy only started to expand rapidly during the PCH era of the 70's, When he opened up the country to foriegn investments (Japan and USA being the two big investors). This was also when we started our large Chaebols, Which helped in rapidly expanded our economy during the 70's and 80's.

This was also during the Cold War period and the Americans had a motive to try and boost the South Korean Status to go against this Soviet Threat

Now i believe that if the Koreas hadn't split, then i don't think the Americans or the Japanese had a real motive to try to boost our economy. I believe that Cold War mentality, the US not wanting to lose to the Soviets, is what forced the Americans to provide concessions and funds that eventually helped boost our economy.

I'm sure that we would have reached our current status eventually, but i just don't think we would have been able to achieve double digit growth rates had we not gone to war and split.......

I think the bigger issue now is, whats going to happen when the North eventually collapses on to itself?
I definitely don't think the South has enough resources to support a sudden influx of below poverty line citizens that number over 30 million.

Then there is the issue of the North Korean Borders, is China going to take advantage and take the rest of PaekDoSan and surrounding areas, or they going to keep the current borders?

There is so many people in the South asking for Reunification, but no one really thinks of the impact such a thing is going to cause. There is a good chance the sudden influx of people will put a heavy strain on our social system, and it could also retard our current economic growth as well.

If perhaps we slowly migrated people out of the North and took the time to properly integrate them into modern society then it MIGHT work, but that's not going to happen, its ever going to be never combine or a spontaneous collapse of the North and the resulting Domino Effect is going to damage both South and the Chinese.

Wow, I just learned a lot from that post, I must say! It certainly stimulated my cranial activity. Obviously, there's no way to say for certain whether you are right about the split of the Korean penninsula helping bolster South Korea's growth, but you definitely bring up some very valid points.

About the other issue, the collapse of North Korea. This is such an interesting issue because it's so hard to tell what will happen. I think it really depends on the role the international community takes if and when this occurs.

I actually believe this is quite a possibility, whether done diplomatically, or by 'force'. It really depends on what happens during said 'collapse' of the North Korean government.

Let's think about it, though. How does a government just disappear? How will this happen? Will the economic strain on North Korea trigger it? Will it be military action by the international community? Whether it be the US or other?

As far as the influx of South Korean citizens. Wow, this would be quite incredible, and I have no idea how the current Korean government would handle it. However, I bet you that they already have some plans on the drawing board in case something like this happens.

South Korea could take this as an opportunity to increase its industry by a large amount by moving a lot of its industry north and creating more industry there in order to stimulate the economy greatly in the region.

This has definitely piqued my interest so I'm going to go read up on related topics a bit.

Its a good point, no one will really know how the split really affected economic and social growth but its nice to speculate on occasions.

I think the best case study that can be made on what the affects of country integration are on social and economic frameworks is the process of integration of the Two Germanys in the 1980's--1990's.

They are definitely on a smaller scale then what a South and North Korea Integration would be, but even on that small scale it took several years to really recoup the issues, both socially and economically, that the integration caused. This is not including the few years leading up to the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall, that was used to prepare the countries for integration.

IF and its a big IF...
The two Koreas were to come together again, we are talking about something this is in scale about 3 to 4 times bigger then the Germany combination. Also we would lack the Pre planning stage. This is because i really think there is only 2 conclusions to the North. They keep staying a 3rd world country until hell freezes over OR due to a whole variety of issues they just implode from within, taking the country's social and economic framework with it.

So whatever really happens its really not going to be pretty and any conclusion is going to put increasing strain on South Korean Stability and Growth rates.

If the North really does implode on itself, It really does become a every man for themselves scenario, which is going to be MAJOR humanitarian crisis. There is no policy or funds in any charity or country that could adequately provide integration and assistance in the case that North Korea Fails completely, Definitely the South doesn't have the funds or the policies to deal with a mass influx of North Korean, its unfortunately wishful thinking to believe they do at this point. We are talking about 23 million people (according to Google) that are going to be suddenly displaced, with no government or protection. Most of these people grew up knowing nothing but the North Korean way of life, and the sudden cultural shock of losing their "Great Leader" and country could cause them to act erratically, and a country with the worlds largest standing army is not something you want to act erratically in a region that's populated by the South, Japan and China.


Then there is obviously what would happen if the North just gives up and launches a pre-emptive strike on the region. There is a great article writen by someone in American Department of Defense in 2003 here
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/ne...rean-war01.htm

Pretty much it outlines what a modern war on the Korean Peninsula is going to look like.

It's also relatively simple, The North Won't survive for more than a few days under the the combined attack of an American led UN force. Bigger issue here is the massive economic and citizen death that is going to occur if such an event occurs. The North has the capability to bombard Seould with artillery strike and level the city in less than a day. Its a MINIMUM 1 million, worse here is the estimate from the site "One estimate, cited by GlobalSecurity.org, says North Korea could kill 38 percent of Seoul's 12 million people by hitting the city with 50 missiles carrying nerve gas."
That's over 4 million people in less then a few hours.

This is not to mention their attacks on Japan and China would be like.

There is a good reason that America hasn't eliminated North Korean yet, like Iraq. A Normal Barking dog isn't very scary. A barking Dog, Frothing at the mouth, with a history of craziness and a nuke under its leg is a completely different story....

And during all this chaos, the Chinese will just expand their borders to cover more of the Korean Peninsula, Considering our efforts trying to Maintain Dokdo or the East Sea, i don't think we will provide too much resistance to any land grab by the Chinese -.-"

That was that whole point of Kaesong Industrial Park, and you can see what happened to that -.-"

The North has shown for the record that they are willing to take every benefit we give them and then turn their backs on us when it suits them.

And because of the Way the economy works in the North, all we are doing is providing money to the North Korean Government to drive their weapons program and feed their upper class citizens. None of the money we invested in that country has really boosted or assisted in growing their economy, so i believe outside attempts to stimulate their economy is a dead end until a point where the North Korean government and social structures change. There needs to be sweeping change of economic laws to help stimulate free market behaviors and they need to start cooperating with international markets and laws so they can start producing and exporting goods. This is the only way their economy is going to experience any sort of viable growth rates and this ain't going to happen unless the way the North operates changes drastically.

I'll need a while to reply to your posts. Wow.

Anyway back to a bit of randomness, anyone see this article in the BBC?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8143780.stm

I'm actually surprised, maybe i haven't seen enough French tourists here in Sydney, but i always thought some of the Tourists of Chinese Backgrounds seem to be worst behaved followed perhaps by Koreans on occasion(It hurts me to say this -.-")

Anyone else think of any other tourists?

That article is pretty funny, and very easy to believe, along with the Spaniards and Greeks, I can definitely see French being among the worst tourists. South Koreans I have always found to be pretty good tourists, I don't know why you would think otherwise. ?,o

So what's up with the DDOS on SK portals? And how on earth did the virus affect so many nodes/people?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sec...ss=securityfix

Also, check this out (three part documentary):
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-gui...h-korea-1-of-3

I found on a few occasions that certain Korean Tourists to be very loud and sometimes unaware of their surroundings. Definitely a minority thou so i'm not too fussed about it. Atleast they didn't show up in the article but they also didn't show up on the list of good tourists so average is probably the word best to explain what i've seen.

There was a article a while back that showed that S-Korea had one of the largest numbers of infected zombie PCs and Viruses in general. I'll try find the article again if i can but im pretty sure i saw it on Digg or Arstechnica. I think it might be because of the large amount of PC방s, and most have pretty shoddy securities in place. I've seem a rather large lack of awareness in terms of malware or anti-virus protection programs among some of my Korean Relatives and their friends. Not sure why thou...

Ahh the guide to North Korea, i've seen parts of it awhile back and another documentary on the country and their 1966 World Cup Soccer team awhile back.

I think the documentaries proved one thing very well. The citizens are definitely very well trained, They have a sort of almost motherly connection to the country that symbolizes communistic ideals and the effects of information restrictions and the effectiveness of propaganda. If the country told them to bark 24/7 they would.

It's hard to believe certain parts considering a lot of the country has been constructed to purposely fool tourists and outsiders. They have that large hotel that's only a shell, there is the subway line thats rumored to be run just for propaganda etc etc.

It would quite interesting once we have full access to the country how many relics of early 20th century or even earlier we end up finding. The whole country is like one large massive time capsule =)

ah that is interesting...i don't remember seeing french tourists specifically...but i met american tourists and other european tourists... i think the article may be onto something though..the other day there were some american tourists in the train they were a bit loud lol..but other citizens were loud too occasionally so it is ok heh...actually here we love tourists i don't think we care much how they behave as long as it is not "too much"...

it is very easy to catch a virus heh..i think there is a luck factor involved..i mean some ppl think if a virus is strong enough it will infect system regardless of the protection...but that is a nasty virus didn't think attacks were still being made with such powerful viruses

I've been using computers for nearly 15 years and i've never gotten a virus infection, 99% of the time as long as the OS was updated and an anti-virus was installed, it detected and stopped any virus intrusions. the other 1% of the time is just making sure i don't click on any random object on the internet for the sake of it.

From what i read, the current DDOS trojan is just the average adaptive trojan. not particularly special just has a large number of infected PCs. The article states it is a variant of the Mydoom trojan, Seriously this thing has been out for years(2004), There is no anti-virus weak enough these days that would even allow the sight of Mydoom anywhere near the computer. Even the main Korean Anti-virus V3 had Mydoom protection years ago....-.-"

The only time I ever got a virus, I really deserved it. I opened a blatantly obvious .exe file, at the time thinking it was a StarCraft no-cd crack. Oh, those were the days!

Does anybody know, how extensive is basic computing taught in schools in Korea?

hmm 40th anniversary of the Apollo Missions and its on the news again
http://www.space.com/news/cs-90716-a...alk-video.html
Nasa seems to have lost the original slow scan videos for the Apollo 11 missions and are restoring the broadcast videos now. (The slow scan videos being the direct feed straight from the Apollo Cameras but not able to be broadcast due to different standards)

What i'm more concerned about is this talk about a riduculous Moon landing conspiracy or the benefits of the space program in general.

I'm seeing way too many comments on that news article and other forums about this and it REALLY gets me annoyed, i can't believe how many people there are that can not be bothered to listen to reason, analysis the evidence there is regarding the missions but still go out and claim that the whole thing was faked or it was a waste of time.

Here is a choice quote from another forum
"personally i think man landing on the moon was some of the worst waste of resources possible. i mean THINK about it. what in the world did we get by people walking on the moon's surface? will we ever harvest the moon? i highly doubt that. just a waste going to the moon again and again"

And this is coming from someone from America, i'm really hoping this isn't the general opinions Americans have of one of the greatest scientific landmarks in modern human history, but i think there was a survey before where more than 10% believed that the moon landings were faked......-.-"

Let the idiots wear their tinfoil hats. Don't let it bother you too much. I agree with you on all of your points though. It was quite the feat for humanity as a whole.

Watched the shuttle launch the other day from my front yard. Couldn't see much (few hundred miles away). It's awesome when I'm at school though, as I'm less than 60 miles away and can see it pretty well.

Let me see If I can dig up some pictures from one a few months ago...

ah that makes me a bit annoyed too....i mean i can understand how a conspiracy theory could be "fun" for some ppl but that!
it was great progress for human kind...and it wasn't really about harvesting or direct benefit..just being able to land on the moon opened the door for millions of other possibilities...
not to mention it was really poetic lol ...but astronomy has always been fascinating to me